Colonel Elliot asks, What in the ballad raised suspicion of forgery (in
1802-03)? The historical inaccuracies are common to all historical
ballads. (In an English ballad known to me of 1578, Henry Darnley is
"hanged on a tree"!)

Next, "there are occasional lines, and even stanzas, which jar in style
to such a degree that they must have been written by two separate
hands."

But this, also, is a common feature. In "Professor Child and the
Ballad," Mr. W. M. Hart gives a list of Professor Child's notes on the
multiplicity of hands, which he, and every critic, detect in some
ballads with a genuinely antique substratum. {44a}

Colonel Elliot quotes, as in his opinion the best, stanzas viii., ix.,
x., xi., while he thinks xv., xviii. the worst. I give these stanzas -


VIII.

They lighted on the banks o' Tweed,
And blew their coals sae het,
And fired the Merse and Teviotdale,
All in an evening late.

IX.

As they fared up o'er Lammermoor,
They burned baith up and doun,
Until they came to a darksome house,